The blood-stained text in translation: tattooing, bodily writing, and performance of Chinese virtue.

The blood-stained text in translation: tattooing, bodily writing, and performance of Chinese virtue. The recent fashionability of Chinese textual tattoos in the USraises questions about cultural transmission and translation. (1) Theexotic and enigmatic text messages challenge interpretation by forcingguesses and explanations, reading and telling, translations andmistranslations. Text carries meaning and invites reading; foreign textsrequire translation, a process of double reading. Chinese text, becauseof its ideographic nature, when used in the tattoos on a Western body,has the enigmatic lure of both exotic pictures and incomprehensibletext. The viewing experience is thus both an aesthetic appreciation ofthe picture and a desire of decoding the text. However, between theinitial aesthetic response and the final understanding of the meaning,there is a long process of guessing/questioning,translating/interpreting (or mistranslation/misinterpretation), (2) andnarrating/reasoning--all these steps constitute the "tattoodiscourse." The Chinese tattoo discourse could be an elaborateperformance because it allows the tattooed body to act as an interpreterand cultural ambassador. I believe the performative per��for��ma��tive?adj.Relating to or being an utterance that peforms an act or creates a state of affairs by the fact of its being uttered under appropriate or conventional circumstances, as a justice of the peace uttering aspect of the tattoodiscourse contributes a great deal to the fetishization of Chinesetextual tattoo in the US in recent years. (3) Moreover, a split between self (as translator) and body (thedisplayed tattoo) inevitably takes place in performative tattoodiscourse. The split allows an interactive play among the subject,viewer, and the tattoo. This performative split between self and body isalso a unique feature in traditional Chinese acting. Chinesepresentational style of acting inserts a split between the actor and thestage character, as the former often introduces the latter. The actoralso directs the audience's gaze to the latter, gesturing andnarrating the special physical features of the character. (4) Althoughthis kind of self-objectification and self-distancing process is presentin all Chinese traditional acting, it is especially obvious in femalecharacters. The female character's body is being described,examined, and appreciated by herself, with the invitation of theaudience's participation. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , the split between theself and the body is also an identification between the self and theaudience. While Chinese language might be gender-neutral, bodily writingand reading are absolutely not. In this paper, I hope to drawconnections among the split (between self and body), bodily writing(tattoo and other kinds of bodily carving), gendered performance, andcultural translation. The majority of the examples will be drawn frompremodern pre��mod��ern?adj.Existing or coming before a modern period or time: the feudal system of premodern Japan.Chinese texts. The bodily reading and writing work differentlyaccording to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. gender, and my focus is on female bodily writing as aperformance of virtue. I also analyze gender differences between bodilywriting as a theatrical performance and as a performative act in life.Do gendered reading conventions survive cultural transmission andtranslation? Is the performance of Chinese virtue translatable acrossspace and time? While bodily reading/writing is performative, how doesone perform such performativity on stage? To answer these questions, Iwill discuss a controversial example of such gendered bodily writing onthe contemporary US stage in the context of cultural transmission andtranslation. When it comes to bodily writing, gender and culture join ina conflict that extends across time and space. It was mainly marginalized social and cultural groups thatpracticed tattooing, carving, mutilation MutilationSee also Brutality, Cruelty.Mutiny (See REBELLION.)Absyrtushacked to death; body pieces strewn about. [Gk. Myth.: Walsh Classical, 3]Agatha, St.had breasts cut off. [Christian Hagiog. , and other permanent bodilymodifications in premodern China. However, the inclusion of textcomplicates the whole history of bodily reading and signifying. Literacyand reading are usually associated with male elite power; nothingreinforced more powerfully the ties between literary text and social andcivil status than the tradition of the Imperial Examination. (5) Thecombination of a lowly practice (tattooing) and elite power (text) thuscreates an interesting phenomenon, turning the marking of the body intoa virtuous performative act. Text prescribes meaning in bodily marking,while the visceral and barbaric associations of the act reinforce thepower of the text. The use of bodily writing as a performance of virtue was agender-coded display in premodern China. On the general question ofinscribed signification SIGNIFICATION, French law. The notice given of a decree, sentence or other judicial act. , one recalls Foucault's notion of the bodyas a site of political and cultural manipulation, in which the bodybecomes the "surface of inscription of events" (Foucault1984:76-100). Judith Butler Judith Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American post-structuralist philosopher who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. has challenged Foucault's assumption of"a materiality prior to signification and form" and hasfurther theorized gender as performance (Butler 1990:128-41). Thinkingalong with Foucault and Butler on the issue of the gendered andinscribed body, I propose a new way of looking at bodily writing as aperformance of virtue, both on and off stage. Whereas the male bodyseems to become a passive medium whose significance lies solely in theinscribed message, reading/writing on the female body works differently,especially on stage. Women rarely use text in bodily writing in reallife, and on stage, the written text is very often detached from thebody because of the different gender code applied to women. (6) Asimilar process of self-objectification, distancing, and explanation inChinese textual tattoo is happening in women's bodily writing onstage. Reading of the text is itself reading of the body. Both the bodyand text are "performers"; they must negotiate a co-existencewithin the realm of bodily reading and writing. The body is the objectof desire for the viewer, but it is also the agent controlling thebodily writing and directing the gaze of the viewer. This is the majordifference between performativity and theatrical performance: for thelatter, pleasure is a major concern. What happens when morality andpleasure clash on stage, with the woman as simultaneous creator,commentator, viewer, and translator of her own bodily writing? I proposean empowering reading of her performance, as she takes the stage asauteur auteur(ōtör`), in film criticism, a director who so dominates the film-making process that it is appropriate to call the director the auteur, or author, of the motion picture. in a rare opportunity for a woman to exercise agency in apremodern Chinese cultural context. This notion of the tattooed woman asauteur opens the way to an analysis of cultural and gender translationsin contemporary America. Traditional Conceptions of Tattoos in Premodern China (7) Non-Chinese Barbarism bar��ba��rism?n.1. An act, trait, or custom characterized by ignorance or crudity.2. a. The use of words, forms, or expressions considered incorrect or unacceptable.b. and Primitivism primitivism,in art, the style of works of self-trained artists who develop their talents in a fanciful and fresh manner, as in the paintings of Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses. . Traditionally, tattooing wasassociated with non-Han ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII ASCIIor American Standard Code for Information Interchange,a set of codes used to represent letters, numbers, a few symbols, and control characters. Originally designed for teletype operations, it has found wide application in computers. ]) peoples. Eventhough modern China consists of many ethnic groups besides the Hartmajority, historically, Han Chinese Han Chinesen.See Han1. often positioned themselves at the"center" of the universe, as the only real Chinese, andregarded other ethnic minorities as man ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII]) or yi ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) (both words carry thesense of "barbarian"). (8) In this light, tattooing,associated with ethnic minority culture, has taken on connotations ofprimitivism and barbarism. A few early examples indicate-that tattooing was practiced duringthe first millennium B.C.E. in Yue ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), astate situated in and around the present-day province of Zhejiang. (9)According to the Zhuangzi ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), since Yuepeople "cut their hair short and tattoo their bodies," theyhad no use of Chinese ceremonial hats (Guo 1980:30-35). An anecdote fromOuter Traditions of the Han School The han school (藩校; hankō) was an educational institution in the Edo period of Japan, originally established to educate children of daimyo (feudal lords) and their retainers in the domains outside of the capital. of Poetry (Hanshi waizhuan, [TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) states that king of Jing ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLEIN ASCII] the great southern state of Chu, situated in the centralYangzi valley) refused to receive a Yue envoy because the latter did notwear a hat. The Yue envoy challenged the cultural difference: "Whatif we asked your envoy to cut off his nose, tattoo his body, and cut offhis hair before being received by the king of Yue?" In response tothis witty remark, the king donned his court attire and received theenvoy (Qu 1996:665-667). Both examples show the cultural differences inthe context of rites and rituals: while Han Chinese wear ceremonialhats, barbarians adorn their bodies with permanent marks. Although theYue envoy is depicted as a good diplomat, he is nevertheless givenself-Orientalizing language to depict his own customs as cruel,barbaric, and unsuitable for Han Chinese to follow. Somewhat later, TheNew History of the Tang records that there were among the southernbarbarians the "Embroidered Feet" people, the"Embroidered Face" people, and the "Carved Forehead"people (Ouyang et al. 1975-81:6325, 6328). In each case, by linkingtattooing with minority groups from the south, these examples provide ananthropological gaze which portrays non-Han peoples as barbaric,uncivilized--in a word, un-Chinese. Crime and Punishment Crime and Punishment (Russian: Преступление и наказание) is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, that was first published in the . Within Han China, tattooing also had a verynegative connotation. In contrast to some other cultures, tattooing wasnever used by Han Chinese in rites of passage into adulthood or to marksexual maturity (Reed 2000:375). Popular Confucius and Buddhist beliefsgenerally discouraged any kind of cutting, mutilation, or permanentmarking of the body. "Body and hair are bestowed by parents andshould not be harmed--this is the beginning of filial piety The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.“Hyo” redirects here. For other uses, see Hyo (disambiguation). " (Xing1979:1:2545). Protecting one's body from any kind of injury is oneof the fundamental elements of being "filial filial/fil��i��al/ (fil��e-al)1. of or pertaining to a son or daughter.2. in genetics, of or pertaining to those generations following the initial (parental) generation. " (xiao, [TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). The Buddhist idea of reincarnation may alsohave contributed to the commitment to keeping the body whole and intact.(10) The combination of religious traditions shared by most Chinese overthe past centuries has ensured that permanent marking or mutilationwould not and could not be encouraged. Historically, the Chinese authorities exploited these beliefs byusing tattooing as an advanced form of corporal punishment corporal punishment,physical chastisement of an offender. At one extreme it includes the death penalty (see capital punishment), but the term usually refers to punishments like flogging, mutilation, and branding. Until c. . Qing ([TEXTNOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], branding), mo ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII], inking), ci qing ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], piercing andmaking dark), ci zi ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], carvingcharacters), ci wen ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], tattooing text)and wen shen ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], patterning the body) areamong the various names for tattooing. The penal practice probablyexisted as early as Western Zhou dynasty Zhou dynastyor Chou dynasty(1046–256 BC) Ancient Chinese dynasty that gave China its historically identifying political and cultural characteristics. (ca. 770-249BC) (Ch'en2000:19-20). To consider only examples of specifically textualpractices, such as ci zi (carving characters) or ci wen (tattooingtext), as a punishment for robbery, the character "robbery"(jie, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ) could be tattooed on thecriminal's cheeks or forehead. For such a simple message in apublic place, no translation was required. Public reading and shamingwould haunt him whenever and wherever he showed his face. Textualtattooing as punishment was an extreme form of humiliation. In literaryworks, this extremity very often transforms into heroism, the bestexamples being the heroes of the famous novel The Water Margin (Shuihuzhuon, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). The one hundred and eight"heroes" are local bandits, rogues and criminals, but all witha sense of justice and righteousness. The leader Song Jiang ([TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), for instance, kills his wife for adultery andis punished for his crime by being tattooed on both cheeks. As much ashe tries to comply with the law, circumstances push him to the margin,and he ends up as the leader of a powerful bandit-hero brotherhood atLiang Mountain. (11) Very often, tattooing is associated with bullies or rogues, toughfigures from the bottom rung of society. Since people from this classhad little access to schooling and literacy, simple texts on the bodycould be very powerful. Duan Chengshi Duan Chengshi (Chinese: 段成式; Wade-Giles: Tuan Ch'engshih, d. 863) was an author and scholar of the Tang Dynasty in China. He was born to a wealthy family in present day Zibo, Shandong. ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII],c. 800-863) recorded numerous incidents related to tattoos in hisYouyang Miscellany (Youyang zazu, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). Onegood example is the case of Zhao Gao Zhao Gao (Traditional Chinese: 趙高; ?? – 207 BC) was the chief eunuch during the Qin Dynasty of China, who played an instrumental role in the downfall of the Qin Dynasty. ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).Zhao, a city rogue from Shu (current Sichuan area), often got intofights and got arrested. His back was tattooed with the characters"Heavenly King Vaisravana" (pishamen tianwang, [TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). In jail, he was able to avoid floggings becausethe jail attendants were intimidated by his tattoos. This became asocial problem because his misconduct was never punished. Li Yijian([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 756-822), a local official at the endof Yuanhe period (806-21), learned about this and was furious. Heordered a caning club made to his specifications, three inches indiameter at the head, and then had his attendants beat Zhao on the backuntil the tattoo had been obliterated. More than thirty strokes wereapplied. Ten days later, Zhao was seen on the street, going door todoor, begging for money to have his tattoo restored (Duan 1975:46). Although Zhao Gao may come off as a pathetic buffoon in thisanecdote, the text on his body nevertheless carries enough weight tostop people from punishing him. Premodern China was a very graphocentricculture, in addition to the association of literacy and knowledge withpower, visual expressions of all kinds also relied heavily on text.Inscribed text can be found on sacrificial vessels from the end of thesecond millennium B.C.E. Texts were also used as decoration on clothes,bedding, jewelry, and even on walls. Inscribed tablets and arches wereelements of traditional architecture. Even paintings generally had atextual component, as painters or collectors wrote poems on them. (12)Perhaps it is partly because of the textual fetish fetish(fĕt`ĭsh), inanimate object believed to possess some magical power. The fetish may be a natural thing, such as a stone, a feather, a shell, or the claw of an animal, or it may be artificial, such as carvings in wood. that Zhao was able toconvince people his textual tattoo actually embodied the spirit of theking of Heaven. From a Han "central" point of view, tattooing wascharacteristic of criminals and barbarians, groups beyond the boundariesof civilization. By mixing or equating these two groups, the discourseon tattoo by Han Chinese secures its centrality and stability insociety. Male Performance of Virtues Loyalty in the Military Context. Beyond the penal use of tattooing,certain historical records indicate that soldiers also used textualtattoos. Such tattoos usually conveyed a military oath or slogan as ademonstration of loyalty or bravery. In The History of the Song Dynasty The Song Dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝; pinyin: S��ng ch��o; 960-1279) of China was a ruling dynasty that controlled China proper and southern China from the middle of the 10th century into the last quarter of the 13th century. ,the short biography of Wang Yan Wang Yan is the name of the following: Wang Yan, a 10th-century emperor of Former Shu. Wang Yan, a Chinese race walker. Wang Yan, a Chinese track cyclist. Wang Yan, a Chinese sepaktakraw player. Wang Yan, a Chinese actress ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII])records a kind of voluntary tattoo by soldiers. Wang Yan, a leader ofopposition forces against the Jurchen invasion, was losing the battlebecause his men were seriously outnumbered. His soldiers tattooed"With pure heart defend the realm" (chi xin bao guo, [TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and "Pledged to kill Jurchen bandits"(shishajin zei, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) on their faces to showtheir determination to fight for Wang (Tuotuo et al. 1975-81:11451-2).Another loyalist tattooing incident occurred near the end of the Mingdynasty Ming dynasty(1368–1644) Chinese dynasty that provided an interval of native rule between eras of Mongol and Manchu dominance. The Ming, one of the most stable but autocratic of dynasties, extended Chinese influence farther than did any other native rulers of China. . Zhang Uingzhen ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), a Mingloyalist, wanted to join the forces of General Zheng Chenggong Zheng Chenggongor Cheng Ch'eng-kung or Koxinga(born Aug. 28, 1624, Hirado, Japan—died June 23, 1662, Taiwan) Chinese military leader of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. ([TEXTNOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) to restore the Ming court. Zheng did nottrust Zhang until the latter revealed the tattoo "With pure heartdefend the realm" (chi xin boo guo, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII]) on his back. Zheng thus entrusted twenty thousand soldiers toZhang and was willing to work with him side by side (Zhao1975-81:9157-8). Loyalty for the old dynasty expressed in a permanentmarking could be suicidal during a dynastic transition; it was theultimate expression of determination. The most famous example in this category is the case of Yue Fei Yue Feior Yüeh Fei(born 1103, Tangyin, Henan province, China—died Jan. 27, 1142, Lin'an, Zhejiang province) One of China's greatest generals and patriotic heroes. ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 1103-1142), the Song dynasty Song dynastyor Sung dynasty(960–1279) Chinese dynasty that united the entire country until 1127 and the southern portion until 1279, during which time northern China was controlled by the Juchen tribes. generalwho has become the epitome of loyalty in the Chinese collectiveimagination. Although Yue Fei was famous for his bravery in fightingagainst the Jurchen invaders, a rival at court, Qin Kuai Qin Kuai (Traditional Chinese: 秦檜; Simplified Chinese: 秦桧; Pinyin: Q��n Ku��i; 1090 - 1155), sometimes translated as ([TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), deceived the emperor and caused Yue'sunjust and untimely death. According to his biography in The History ofthe Song Dynasty, Yue Fei had a tattoo on his back "Requite re��quite?tr.v. re��quit��ed, re��quit��ing, re��quites1. To make repayment or return for: requite another's love.See Synonyms at reciprocate.2. To avenge. therealm with absolute loyalty" (jin zhong bao guo, [TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) (Tuotuo et al. 1975-81:11393). The combinationof the injustice done to him and his unusual tattoo gives him tremendouspower in popular novels and drama, and he is revered as a great hero.The tattooing episode, a brief entry in the historical text, is anecessary device in reconstructing his story in the popular imagination. The Collection of Drama and Songs on the Yue Fei Story is one ofthe best sources for studying the Yue Fei character in performance. Thismodern compilation shows that in folk songs, in regional popular drama,and in more elite dramatic forms such as chuanqi ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLEIN ASCII]), Yue Fei's tragedy has become a timeless legend, and histattooing incident has never been forgotten. In Duo Oiukui ([TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), an early Qing chuanqi play by Zhu Liangqing([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), Yue Fei, a youth talented in historyand martial arts, is planning to go to the capital for the ImperialMartial Examination, but worries about his aging mother. Madam Yue bidshim to be careful and not to befriend be��friend?tr.v. be��friend��ed, be��friend��ing, be��friendsTo behave as a friend to.befriendVerbto become a friend toVerb 1. bad people (fei lei, [TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). Yue believes that, as the Song court is indanger of falling, now is the best time to serve his country. Thefollowing dialogue shows his determination: Yue Fei: I want to carve the four characters Jin zhong bao guo([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], requite the realm with absoluteloyalty) on my skin, as a way to show my loyalty and appreciation to theemperor and as a vow not to follow treacherous people. What do youthink, mother? Madam Yue: My child, if you are really devoted, you needn'tworry about achieving it. Why do you want to tattoo those characters? Ifyou harm your body, it is not filial. Yue Fei: Mother, loyalty and filial piety are one thing. My will isto make a name, not to harm my body.... Mother, let me take off my shirtand kneel in the front hall. Please use the embroidery needle to tattoothe four characters "jin zhong bao guo" onto your son'sbody.... Madam Yue (sings): I raise the embroidery needle but cannot carve.The skin is blue and white. Lines of words and drops of blood make theheroic text--all line up as loyalty and filial piety. So solid andpermanent that even Heaven can take it as a standard. I'll reportto the court after you've swept away the evil spirit. (Scene Four)(Zhu 1985:13-4). This is a typical handling of the tattooing episode. Variantssometimes make the mother determined and the son hesitant, but in theend both mother and son agree on tattooing as a way to show Yue'sdevotion to his country. The drama often turns on the painful decisionof the mother who tattoos her own flesh and blood. Yue Fei's tattooindeed becomes a convenient testimony for his loyalty later in thisplay. At the Imperial Martial Examination, he accidentally kills hisopponent and is sentenced to death. Madam Yue points out his tattoo tothe judge. After examining the tattoo, the judge says: "Ah, I almostaccidentally killed a pure-hearted lowborn hero!" He releases YueFei because the tattoo is a proof of his loyalty and righteousness(Scene fourteen) (Zhu 1985:36). In a short anonymous play, Returning Home and Inscribing Text(Huifu cizi, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), performed around theBeijing area in the mid-Qing period, Yue visits his mother at home aftertwelve years' service in the army. Surprised, his mother scolds himfor his return. She reminds him that without loyalty there can be nofilial piety. In order to ensure his loyalty to the emperor, she carveson Yue's back "With loyalty and filial piety requite therealm" (zhong xiao bao guo, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) inthe ancestral hall. After giving Yue Fei an iron bow and drinking a cupof farewell wine, Madam Yue sends her son back to the battlefieldwithout further delay (Anonymous 1985:63-65). (13) Interestingly, all these dramatic tattooing incidents happen in atransitional and unstable phase, usually when China is under the threatof foreign (barbarian) invasion. Under normal circumstances, tattooingis condemned by society as lowly and uncivilized. But in times ofturmoil, the extremity of the tattoo is reversed. Extreme barbarism isturned into an extreme expression of Chinese virtue, loyalty,patriotism, and filial piety. Now one can perform Chinese virtue byrendering a form of "barbaric extremism" on a civilizedChinese body. The barbaric and subversive energy revitalizes a sterileand weakened Han Chinese culture. Borrowing barbarian strength has longbeen a military strategy in Chinese history; (14) however, by inscribingtext instead of pictures on the body, Han Chinese heroes perform thebarbaric act in a higher cultural register. The act of textual tattooingalready figures a kind of Chinese nationalist victory. The Male Body and Pain. In addition to the shame it brought, painand the fear of pain must have helped make tattooing an effective andaffective punishment. However, pain is rarely mentioned when tattooingis attributed to marginalized social groups or non-Hart barbarians. Theidea of pain and endurance seem worth mentioning only when the suffereris a nobler person such as a Chinese hero Chinese Hero was a popular manhua created by Chinese artist Ma Wing Shing. It is also referred to as "Zhong Hua Ying Xiong", "Blood Sword", "Blood Sword Dynasty", "A Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword" and "A Man Called Hero". . The act of suffering comes toimply virtue. In her study of pain, Elaine Scarry Elaine Scarry (born 30 June, 1946), a professor of English and American Literature and Language, is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. writes of thenon-verbal quality of pain. Because pain has no referential content, itresists language. No matter how "objective" or how"scientific" a description of pain is, pain still escapeslanguage. Moaning can actually be seen as a destruction of language(Scarry 1985:5-6). If pain does not matter in tattoos for barbarians orrogues, is it because their rough bodies can resist pain better? Ormight the lowliness of rogues and the inarticulateness in��ar��tic��u��late?adj.1. Uttered without the use of normal words or syllables; incomprehensible as speech or language: "a cry . . . that . . . of barbariansmake language impossible? No utterance, not even moaning is detectedwhen tattoo is associated with barbarians. Pain inflicted on a cheapbody is less affective because it is less meaningful. When associated with virtue, the pain in tattooing becomes muchgreater and the suffering is considered much more valuable. Under thesecircumstances, endurance, a silent refusal even to moan, can actually beconsidered as a kind of utterance, the utterance most clearly bespeakingvirtue and heroism. The tattooed message also amplifies the utterance.But the real utterance comes from the empathy of the observer. Thevarious versions of the Yue Fei tattooing incident are good examples.While Madam Yue carries out the tattooing in tears, Yue Fei is silentand unmoved. A comparable example is the dramatic"bone-scraping" episode in the legend of Guan guan:see curassow. Gong (Lord Guan[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) or Guan Yu Guan Yuor Kuan Yü or Guan Di(died 219) Military hero of the Three Kingdoms era (3rd century AD) who started his career as the bodyguard of Liu Bei, the founder of one of the three kingdoms. ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII]) was a fierce warrior and one of the sworn brothers originally, companions in arms who took an oath to share together good and bad fortune; hence, faithful friends.See also: Sworn of Liu Bei This is a Chinese name; the family name is 劉 (Liu). Li�� B��i (Chinese: 劉備; Pinyin: Li�� B��i) (161 – 223 AD), Chinese style name Xu��nd�� ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), the leader of the Shu Kingdom duringthe Three Kingdoms period (220-280). His bravery and loyalty were oftenpraised and dramatized. One incident in The Story of the Three Kingdomsshows the great doctor Hua Tuo Hua Tuo (d. 208) was a famous physician during the Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era of China. He was described as looking like "an immortal who had passed the gates of this life" and "a man with the complexion of a youth and a snowy beard". ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII])treating Lord Guan for a wound from a poison arrow. Dr. Hua warns Guanabout the gruesome treatment procedure, and Guan says: "I see deathas a return home (shisi rugui, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). Whyshould I be afraid?" Guan also refuses Hua's suggestion that,in preparation for surgery, he set up a post with a ring, place his armthrough the ring and tie it up, covering his head with cloth. Hua cutsopen the flesh and scrapes the poison from the bone; the sound of thescraping turns everyone pale. A bucket is set up to collect the blood.During the operation, Guan eats, drinks and plays chess with a fellowsoldier, never moaning or even frowning. After the operation isfinished, Hua applies medicine and sews up the wound. When Guan praisesHua as a god-like doctor, Hua replies, "I've been practicingmedicine all my life and never seen this before. You are indeed a truegod!" (Chapter 75) (Luo 1992:2:661-2). Not only a "truegod" in fiction, Lord Guan has become an icon of bravery andloyalty on stage. (15) He is also worshiped as one of the popular Taoistgods in China, as well as a representative "Asian" god inAsian America. For marginalized people, the pain is passed over in silence andonly the result--the tattooed body--is displayed. Their suffering isusually ignored or even ridiculed. For Han Chinese heroes, pain is likea fierce battle to be fought, but the victory seems to come silently andeffortlessly, due to the great virtue of their endurance. It is usuallythe perpetrator A term commonly used by law enforcement officers to designate a person who actually commits a crime. of violence (Madam Yue and Dr. Hua) who shows empathyfor the body and a hesitation to mark it permanently. Madam Yue'stears and "the sound of scraping," juxtaposed with thevictims' silence, created the best affect on page and on stage. In male bodily writing, whether on or off stage, whether for roguesor heroes, the signification of the text surpasses the value of thebody. The fetish and elite association give the inscribed textincalculable in��cal��cu��la��ble?adj.1. a. Impossible to calculate: a mass of incalculable figures.b. Too great to be calculated or reckoned: incalculable wealth. power. Even the official has to destroy the buffoon ZhaoGao's tattoo to prove his own authority. Since the text is to beviewed by others, not by the self (the text is on the back or on theface), the body thus has no control over the text and fades into thebackground. The self/body split is less obvious. In association withvirtue, the text on the body functions as a permanent speech act: itshows determination and testifies to heroism, as in the case of Yue Fei.The performative text, not the body, is the main actor in theperformance of virtue. Performing Virtuous Women Performative Virtue. The female body is a different matter. In manycultures, female bodies are marked or decorated regularly, but such bodyart conveys a meaning very different from that of male body art. In astudy of Southeast Nuba body art (body painting and permanent marking),James Faris notes the differences of signification in male and femalepersonal art. While male body art usually relates to productivity orsports, female art signals the women's sexual and reproductivecapacities and the patrilineal patrilineal/pa��tri��lin��e��al/ (pat?ri-lin��e-il) descended through the male line. pat��ri��lin��e��aladj.Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the paternal line. clans with which they are associated(Faris 1988: 29-40). Chinese female body can also be understood in lightof patriarchy. Well-known Confucian precepts for women--"Obey thefather at home, the husband after marriage, and the son after thehusband's death"--further explain the female position in aChinese patriarchal hierarchy. The female body is to be preserved, to bekept intact for marriage, but not to be marked, displayed, or"read" for significance. Literacy is also a male property.Fewer women write, and women's writing is considered less importantthan elite males.' (16) Generally speaking, women do not markthemselves, and such textual marking, if ever happens, is for othersignifications. (17) However, in a number of extreme cases, female bodily marking isconnected with virtue. Biographies of Female Exemplars (Lienu zhuan,[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) records such examples. For instance,Miss Shi of Liyang, daughter of Shi Wei, was a proper woman. She wasbetrothed to Shao Yilong. Unfortunately, her betrothed died before theirwedding date. In mourning, she stopped eating meat and vowed to remaincelibate all her life. She explained to her parents that since they didnot have sons, she could remain unmarried to take care of them like ason, but her father insisted on marrying her off. In order to show herdetermination, she used a needle and carved on her face "A faithfulheart does not change" (zhong xin bu gai, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII]). As her mother wept to see her bleed, Miss Shi took some ink andcolored the carved characters. Her father died early and she remainedwith her mother until the end of her life. (18) Another incident, also from the Biographies of Female Exemplars, isabout the widow Gao Xing of Liang. She had many suitors, including theking of Liang. In order to prove her fidelity, she gazed into a mirrorand cut off her nose with a knife. She then explained to the king thatsince it was beauty he desired, she should be exempted as a disfiguredperson. Touched by her extraordinary virtue, the king thus bestowed uponher the name "Gao Xing" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII],high virtue) (Mao 1981:6:18-20). One might argue that although such acts are performed by womenthemselves, the bodily writing--to express fidelity to herbetrothed/husband--actually further honors a conventional male ownershipof her body. In this type of narrative, a woman cannot and does not wishto own her own body. Moreover, one might want to imagine such"female virtue" books, compiled by male writers, thoughsuggesting true stories (the nature of biography), serve as a kind of"conduct books" or "textbooks" to keep women morallycontrolled. The repetitive and formulaic behavior patterns in thesebiographies suggest either women imitate the "virtuous acts"by other exemplary women, or biographers follow some known patterns toedit/construct biographies. The performative bodily writing in thebiographies actually generates a series of performative reading andmimesis mimesis/mi��me��sis/ (mi-me��sis) the simulation of one disease by another.mimet��ic mi��me��sisn.1. The appearance of symptoms of a disease not actually present, often caused by hysteria. . A more common reason for a woman to cut off a part of body is forpurification. For instance, Li was the widow of the prefectural pre��fec��ture?n.1. The district administered or governed by a prefect.2. The office or authority of a prefect.3. The residence or housing of a prefect. militaryofficial Wang Ning. An innkeeper An individual who, as a regular business, provides accommodations for guests in exchange for reasonable compensation.An inn is defined as a place where lodgings are made available to the public for a charge, such as a hotel, motel, hostel, or guest house. refused her and her young son lodgingand dragged her out by her arm. Lamenting that her chastity had beenmarred by the innkeeper's touch, she cut off the hand with an axein order to restore her purity. The prefect prefector praefect(both: prē`fĕkt), in ancient Rome, various military and civil officers. Under the empire some prefects were very important. The Praetorian prefects (first appointed 2 B.C. of the capital had theinnkeeper flogged. A familiar doctrine--that men and women should keepapart, not even passing objects to each other hand to hand (Nannushoushou buqin, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) (19)--is invoked hereas the reason for the severing of her hand (Mao 1981:7:12-13). Theultimate form of cleansing is of course suicide, which can be adopted inprevention of a potential rape or as a real cleansing method after thebody has been polluted. Bandits or foreign invasions often pose threatsto women's purity, and many women committed suicide "todistance suspicion" or "to ward off violation." (20) Onemight argue that it sometimes made sense for a woman to commit suicide Verb 1. commit suicide - kill oneself; "the terminally ill patient committed suicide"kill - cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly; "This man killed several people when he tried to rob a bank"; "The farmer killed a pig for the holidays" under hostile circumstances, as surviving women were not always welcomedby society. (21) Sometimes such a "virtuous" female suicideeven became a public affair sponsored by the state or the family. (22) Another example of self-inflicted violence is connected with filialpiety and loyalty. A graphic example describes Liao, Ouyang Xiwen'swife, who fled with her husband and mother-in-law into the mountains toescape bandits. Liao let her husband and mother-in-law escape but washerself captured by the bandits. After the rebels had cut off her earsand arms, she shouted, "Even if you kill me, how long can yourbutchering go on?" Finally she fell to the ground and died.Villagers buried her and called her tomb "The Tomb of the ChasteMadam Liao" (Liaojiefu mu, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). (23) Such explicit biographical accounts of a woman's body andwords amount to a form of theatre. Katherine Carlitz points out thatwoman's body is a site or theatre used by "the imperium IMPERIUM. The right to command, which includes the right to employ the force of the state to enforce the laws; this is one of the principal attributes of the power of the executive. 1 Toull. n. 58. toconstitute itself, asserting the impenetrability im��pen��e��tra��bil��i��ty?n.1. The quality or condition of being impenetrable.2. The inability of two bodies to occupy the same space at the same time.Noun 1. of its borders,undergirding the idealized Chinese pyramid of loyalties"; however,the blurring of morality and sensation in later developments of thefemale biography make women less an emblem than an object (Carlitz1994:101-24). Here I wish to stress a fundamental difference betweentheatre and theatrical writing, between performance and performativity.The site is again the woman's body. Whether it is an object ofdesire or a site of virtuous performance, the female body has to remainattractive for proper viewing on stage, whereas in performativebiographies or fictions graphic description might work better to arousepathos. No matter how didactic a dramatic plot or how graphic a dramaticaction might be, the woman's body is sexualized to give the besttheatrical effect. In biographies, a virtuous woman will disfigure disfigurev. to cause permanent change in a person's body, particularly by leaving visible scars which affect a person's appearance. In lawsuits or claims due to injuries caused by another's negligence or intentional actions, such scarring can add considerably to herself, cutting off body parts or committing suicide in a gruesome wayto get a moral message across. Crude morality can be entertaining on thepage, but when it is performed on stage, it has to be refined andbeautified. Theatrical Performance of Virtue. On stage, the woman's bodyis both to be violated and to be protected--violated to create a senseof tantalizing tan��ta��lize?tr.v. tan��ta��lized, tan��ta��liz��ing, tan��ta��liz��esTo excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach. danger, protected to heighten both moral teaching andsexual attraction Noun 1. sexual attraction - attractiveness on the basis of sexual desireattractiveness, attraction - the quality of arousing interest; being attractive or something that attracts; "her personality held a strange attraction for him" . A virtuous woman dying beautifully can arouse themaximum pathos, whereas a good but homely woman has a difficult timewinning much stage sympathy. Beautiful suffering is attractive on stage,but explicit brutality is better saved for fantasy. A sexualized femalebody is a body for suggestive smiling, pathetic wailing or tantalizingdancing, not for mutilation. On stage, violence to a woman's bodyis allowed only when it is carried out with subtlety and beauty. One typical example of a virtuous woman's beautified sufferingis the story of Zhao Wuniang ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) from TheLute (Pipa ji, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) by Gao Ming ([TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], c. 1305-?). Zhao, the epitome of suffering, hasexperienced abandonment by her husband, famine, poverty, death ofparents-in-law and more. One instance of bodily writing thatdemonstrates her suffering is the famous episode of hair-cutting andhair-selling. Hair was considered part of the endowment from one'sparents and was to be treasured. Cutting one's hair was also asymbolic gesture of forsaking the mundane world and joining a Buddhistmonastic community. Moreover, a woman's hair represented herfeminine beauty. For a young female character like Zhao, then,hair-cutting is a serious undertaking. After a brief honeymoon period honeymoon periodA timespan after diagnosing a disease before its impact is manifest, fancifully likened to the HP of early marriage, during which the husband and wife are most cordial and passionate with each other Diabetology A period of residual β cell ,Cai Bojie ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), her husband of sixty days,leaves for the capital for the Imperial Examination. While Cai, thenewly appointed "Top Scholar" (zhuangyuan), lingers in thecapital and marries the daughter of the prime minister, his poor wifetakes care of his parents through the harshest of times. Herparents-in-law eventually succumb to famine, poverty and illness. Inorder to bury her father-in-law properly, Zhao cuts off her hair andtries to sell it in the marketplace, hoping someone will take pity onher. Zhao's hair is valuable because of its symbolic value, itsassociation with her body and her willingness to mutilate mu��ti��late?tr.v. mu��ti��lat��ed, mu��ti��lat��ing, mu��ti��lates1. To deprive of a limb or an essential part; cripple.2. To disfigure by damaging irreparably: mutilate a statue. herself. Thefollowing scene shows the gradual splitting of herself and the hair. Shesays: Ever since my phoenix mate went far away, Who has combed these clouds of hair? My makeup table I never approach; only dust grows there. Everything I've pawned-combs, adornments, hairpins--not one is left. My hair! Already I've ruined Your years of spring, And now I must cut you So my old parents will have a burial place. It wounds my heart to cut my hair, Fills me with resentment toward the fickle man with whose locks it was bound. (She starts to cut, then puts down the scissors.) ... I try to cut, then pause as tears fall. If only I'd first donned a cassock, shaved my head, and entered Buddha's Gate! If I were a nun, Never would I have suffered this today! Originating in her body, her hair has now become an embodiment ofherself--another beautiful woman with a pathetic fate. She laments theshort-lived beauty of her double: "My hair in its beauty is worthystill to adorn a bride/To be covered with pearl and feather ornament,perfumed with musk." She hesitates: I would not cut you, my hair, But to ask help from others--how could I bear the shame? I must cut, But the stroke of metal blade is answered with pain in my heart! She cannot bear the violence of cutting the hair--it indeed hurtsher heart; she cannot invite someone else to do it for her--it issomething personal and shameful. She vacillates between treating thehair as part of herself and as her double (detached body part). Finallyshe chooses virtue over feminine beauty and cuts her hair: Enough! Enough! I'll use piles of raven tresses, My dancing phoenix locks, To repay, like the baby crow, The love of white-haired parents. Then people will say that the girl with cloudlike hair Provided burial for those with hair of frost (Gao 1980:184-6). (24) Her apostrophe apostrophe, figure of speechapostrophe,figure of speech in which an absent person, a personified inanimate being, or an abstraction is addressed as though present. to her hair distances her from it. Now that it isdetached from her body, even she herself can commodify com��mod��i��fy?tr.v. com��mod��i��fied, com��mod��i��fy��ing, com��mod��i��fiesTo turn into or treat as a commodity; make commercial: "Such music . . . commodifies the worst sorts of . . . it, drawing theaudience's attention to it, gesturing to it, talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to"lecture, speechrebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to it, cryingand singing for it. The cutting, lamenting and selling of her hair makethe reading take place outside of her body. She becomes a viewerwatching her dismembered part speak of female suffering and virtue. Sheis both perpetrator and victim of violence. This has taken theincomplete split a step further, because other than performativedescription of the character, there is an actual action of cutting. Sheis multiplied into the self, the detached body part, and thenarrator/performer/director. Zhao and the audience share in thesadomasochistic sa��do��mas��o��chism?n.The combination of sadism and masochism, in particular the deriving of pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting or submitting to physical or emotional abuse. pleasure. Even though the hair-cutting is less painfulthan tattooing, it is nevertheless dramatic and powerful because of itsassociation with a female body. In the opening scene of the play, the author's intention isclear: From today back to ancient times, So many kinds of tales! Countless romances of beautiful ladies and brilliant men, Miraculous immortals, mysterious demons-- All trifling stories worthless to read. Truly, a tale without moral teaching, No matter how finely written, is useless. Indeed, because of its moral teachings, this play was highlypraised by Zhu Yuanzhang ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], r.1368-1398), the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. It is regarded as amodel play: As for plays, To please people is easy, To influence them hard. But those who deeply understand Will look with different eyes. Don't be concerned with the clowning and jokes, Nor examine the modes and count up the tunes. Consider only whether sons are filial, wives are true (Gao 1980:31). Despite the morality promoted in the play, The Lute is not lackingin sensual theatrical pleasure, which is expressed fully in thehair-cutting scene. The cutting of hair, though painless, cannevertheless be seen as a powerful display because of its associationwith the female body and virtue. Because this symbolic marking takesplace outside of the body, it can be read and appreciated closely;moreover, the reading is performed with an "insider's"view, by the woman herself. The double position of the woman--asvictim/perpetrator, writer/reader, and insider/outsider--provides theaudience immense sadomasochistic and voyeuristic pleasure. Even with allthe tantalizing bodily writing to demonstrate her filial piety andfidelity, her own body is largely protected and can still function as asexual whole on stage. With her sexual appeal and virtuous conduct, thewoman character is more powerful. Another kind of writing, involving cutting flesh and bleeding, is"blood-letter-writing." Writing in blood shows determinationin the context of military heroism, but women, whose writing is rarelydramatized, have the opportunity on stage to imitate men in such bodilywriting. Blood-letter-writing usually happens in extreme situations; thewoman is typically in desperate need of help or is about to commitsuicide. The letter is usually carried to a designated receiver by awild goose wild goosen.Any of numerous species of undomesticated geese, as the Canada goose and the graylag. . The wild goose's sense of direction ensures thedelivery of the letter by the "lost" woman in need.Blood-letter achieves more than simple communication--it convinces andtouches the audience's heart with the female blood. The famous story of Xue Pinggui ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII])and Wang Baochuan ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) involves just sucha letter. (25) Wang Baochuan, daughter of the prime minister, has dreamtof a red star falling into her chamber. In order to decode her dream,she prays in the garden and meets Xue, a beggar. Thinking their meetingis destined, she asks him to a ceremony in which she will toss a balldecorated with colored ribbons. Whoever catches the ball will become herhusband. Xue catches the ball and Wang refuses to break her promise,despite her father's strong objection. She marries Xue and liveswith him in a cold hovel HOVEL. A place used by husbandmen to set their ploughs, carts, and other farming utensils, out of the rain and sun. Law Latin Dict. A shed; a cottage; a mean house. . Xue joins the military to fight the Western Liang This article refers to the Han-founded kingdom in what is now Gansu, whose sovereigns were ancestors of the eventual Tang Dynasty emperors. For the dynasty in what is now Hubei, see Liang Dynasty. . He is captured,marries the princess of the Western Liang and later becomes the king.Eighteen years after he has left Wang, the latter remains poor andchaste, waiting for her husband's return. One day, Xue receives areport that a big wild goose keeps uttering human language:"Pinggui has gone wrong (Pinggui wu dao, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII])." From the wild goose Xue receives a letter from his wifeWang, written in blood: Kowtow and kowtow, Kowtow to my husband, man of no principles. Since you left for the Western Liang, I have been suffering in this chilly hole. Return three days early--you will see me; Return three days late--we will never meet again. It is not just the words, but words in blood, the real presence ofWang, that awakens Xue's memory. He mounts his strong red-manedhorse and rushes home. Seeing her, Xue does not greet her right away:"Stop! I left home for eighteen years, and I don't know if sheis still chaste. There's no one around. Why don't I flirt withher a while. If she is chaste, we'll meet each other as husband andwife; if she's not, I'll kill her and return to my princessamong the Western Liang." Xue pretends to be a fellow soldier and claims that Xue has owedhim money. Unable to repay him, Xue sold Wang to him. Wang laments:"Alas, cruel husband! I point in the direction of the Western Liangand scold SCOLD. A woman who by her habit of scolding becomes a nuisance to the neighborhood, is called a common scold. Vide Common Scold. you. You are an unprincipled bandit bandit:see brigandage. ! I scold you! For you, Ileft the prime minister's home; for you, I severed thefather-daughter tie!" She refuses the money offered to her. Xue isat last convinced of her chastity and wants to greet her properly as herhusband. Now it is Wang who refuses to believe him and asks for proof.He brings out the letter: "Waters from thousands origins all returnto the ocean. Please examine it carefully." Wang looks at theletter: "Seeing my blood-letter I cannot dry my eyes. My heartaches. Let me open the door of the cold hovel and reunite with myhusband" (Anonymous 1986:1:580-6). It is the blood-letter that awakens Xue's memory of Wang; itis also the same letter that convinces Wang herself of Xue'spresence. The pain and suffering associated with blood addinsurmountable value to the letter; it has become the testimony oftruth The Testimony of Truth is the third manuscript from Codex IX of the Nag Hammadi Library. It is not to be confused with the Quaker ideal sometimes bearing the same name (see also: Testimony of Integrity). . It is as if without the letter, all the suffering of eighteenyears would be in vain and husband and wife would never be reunited.Because it is detached from the body, it can be transported by a wildgoose, read, examined and verified. When husband and wife cannot trusteach other, the blood-letter becomes a third character, a mediator bywhich the couple achieve final reunion. It is more real and powerfulthan the real person. Meanwhile, her own intact body is pure enough topass the chastity test posed by her husband, but beautiful and sexuallyattractive Adj. 1. sexually attractive - capable of arousing desire; "the delectable Miss Haynes"delectabledesirable - worth having or seeking or achieving; "a desirable job"; "computer with many desirable features"; "a desirable outcome" enough to invite seduction by the pretend fellow soldier. Thesplit between her bodily writing and her body adds to the theatricalityand titillation of the play, while also allowing the resolution of itscentral conflict. Another famous example of the blood-letter is from the story ofWang Zhaojun This is a Chinese name; the family name is 王 (Wang). Wang Qiang (王牆 also 王檣; 王嬙), more commonly known by her style name Wang Zhaojun ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], fl. 33 B.C.E.), afrequent subject of dramatic treatment. A court lady from the Handynasty Han dynasty(206 BC–AD 220) Second great Chinese imperial dynasty. In contrast to the preceding Qin dynasty, the Han was a period of cultural flowering. One of the greatest of the early histories, the Shiji by Sima Qian, was composed, and the fu, a poetic form that with only minimal testimony in historical records, (26) WangZhaojun enjoys the spotlight because of her dramatized suicide at theborder before a peace-alliance marriage between the Han and a northernsemi-nomadic tribe, the Xiongnu. The national significance of herhistorical marriage was amplified as she became a dramatic characterduring the Yuan dynasty under the Mongol rule. (27) The example Idiscuss here is from a chuanqi play, Appeasing the Barbarians (Herongji, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), written anonymously during theMing dynasty. (28) A beautiful woman whose life is full of injustice and suffering,Wang is chosen with ninety-nine other women to serve the emperor.However, because she is unwilling to bribe the painter Mao Yanshou, whoprovides portraits of the court women for the emperor's easypreviewing, her portrait is marred and she is condemned to the ColdPalace. Her feminine pathos is reflected in her song: "One shouldnever be a woman, whose happiness and sufferings are all generated byothers!" (Anonymous 1573-1619:1:22). Like Zhao Wuniang in The Lute,Wang has a brief moment of happiness as she becomes the queen for ashort time. Mao, however, flees to the Shatuo tribe and encourages thechieftain to request Wang's hand. There is no way for her to escape; the emperor and his officialsmust agree to the marriage. At the borderland bor��der��land?n.1. a. Land located on or near a frontier.b. The fringe: a shadowy figure who lived on the borderland of the drug scene.2. , she blames the Han court:"How many civil and martial subjects does Emperor Yuan Emperor Yuan can refer to: Emperor Yuan of Han (75 BC – 33 BC) Emperor Yuan of Wei (246 - 303), See C��o Hu��n Emperor Yuan of Jin (276 - 323) Emperor Yuan of Liang (508 - 554) have?Millions of iron-armored men without masculinity can bear to see a womanappeasing barbarians! What's the use of having generals?" Sherequests three things from the chieftain before the marriage: a promiseof surrender, the gold imperial seal Imperial Seal refers to the seal used by imperial families to endorse imperial edicts. Imperial Seal of China Imperial Seal of Japan See alsoSeal (device) of the Shatuo, and the death ofMao. The chieftain fulfills Wang's wishes to kill Mao, and thenpresents his head to her. Examining his body parts, she curses them oneby one and concludes with: "It is you who jeopardized the countryand ruined me. I want to break your body, cut off your head, smash yourbones into powder and swallow them!" This revenge scene, with Wangcursing her dismembered enemy, must have been intensely satisfying forthe audience. However, such a gruesome display of the body is notsuitable for her; her body must always be presented in a beautifulfashion. When at last the climactic moment comes, Wang hopes to send aletter to the emperor to tell him about her feelings, and a white wildgoose descends to await her command. The white wild goose, the Earth Godin disguise, will deliver Wang's final letter to help her"show her loyalty to the emperor, express her love for her husband,and demonstrate her chastity" at the end of her life (Anonymous1573-1619:2:26). This letter-carrier is also a perfect audience for herclimactic one-woman show. Without a brush, she can only bite her ownfinger and use her blood to write the letter: Zhaojun kowtows to bid farewell to the emperor. I left the palace and came to the Black River in tears. Your love is as deep as the ocean, My feelings are as heavy as a mountain. Seeing the letter is like seeing me, So you will not weep day and night. We could not enjoy ourselves in our last life, Nor celebrate matrimony in this life. This letter is for you as a souvenir. If I die in the river, for the sake of me, With whom you shared a pillow, Please take care of my parents. May you be king for tens of thousand generations. My tears fall on the letter, My heart is broken! She entrusts this letter to the wild goose and tells it to becareful: do not fly low, avoid traps, do not float on the water, lestthe letter get wet. It is her own body that she is entrusting themessenger to carry to the emperor. Her own beauty is not marred, eventhough blood is shed; she can still kill herself as a beautiful andvirtuous whole: It is impossible to keep my body intact And not to violate moral rules. If I do not want to have my pure name stained, I must throw myself into the river. (She throws herself into the river) (Anonymous 1573-1619:2:27-32). Her spirit visits the emperor in a dream. When he wakes, the wildgoose has brought the blood-letter to him. The emperor's readingfiguratively returns Wang to the stage. This symbolic presence as evokedin reading ("seeing the letter is like seeing me") seems morereal and satisfying than the dream spirit, even though the latter partis acted by a real person. As a powerful testament to her fidelity andchastity, the letter grants Wang the highest female virtue; it alsoprovides a sensual pleasure as she plays with violence and suffering.The double reading of the blood text (once by Wang before her death,once by the emperor) binds the lovers, even beyond life and death.Although the final suicide is the highest sacrifice for women, it isduring the last moments before suicide, when the dramatic potential isat its highest, that the bodily writing occurs. The letter-writing isher excuse to linger on the border land and to exercise her greatestpower as a dramatic character. (29) Moreover, seen in the context ofintercultural conflicts, the blood-letter with Chinese text is theultimate testimony of Chinese female virtue: the letter of Wang Baochuanensures Xue's homecoming and his renewed allegiance to China; WangZhaojun's letter shows her loyalty both to her husband and toChina. Only a heroine of Chinese virtue can do such bodily writing. It is imperative to reiterate here that in the scanty historicalaccount on Wang Zhaojun, Wang is recorded simply as a court lady beingchosen to marry the foreign king. There is no romance with the Chineseemperor, no blood-letter, no suicide. However, the blood-letter andpathetic suicide, as a performance of the female virtue, alwaysfunctions as the climatic scene in drama. I have demonstrated, in the examples discussed above, thedifficulty a woman faced in claiming ownership of her body in premodernChinese patriarchal society. The detached bodily writing heightens thefeminine sexual allure for male viewers even as it signals virtue;however, sometimes violence against herself seems the most effective wayfor her to take control of her own body. Regardless of the intension in��ten��sion?n.1. The state or quality of being intense; intensity.2. The act of becoming intense or more intense; intensification.3. Logic The sum of the attributes contained in a term. behind the male writer and sexual pleasure aroused in male audience, Ipropose a reading that considers such female bodily writing as aperformance of a kind of auteurship. (30) The split between the womanand the detached bodily writing gives her unmatched power as the auteuron stage: she is author, director and performer. She commits theviolence and suffers from it, she does the bodily writing in a beautifulfashion, she directs the gaze and enjoys the sensual object herself, sheshifts between identifying with the male viewer and with the femaleobject. Zhao Wuniang, Wang Baochuan, and Wang Zhaojun all exercise theirpower as the auteur writes/directs/performs her signature work. Althougha woman's "happiness and sufferings are all generated byothers," this is a rare opportunity for her to control her body,play with her body, speak to and speak of her body, and to show theaudience the proper way to view her performance, even if only for abrief time. This is the only time a woman's body/words are takenseriously on stage, as she finally gains some agency. Conclusion: Cultural and Gender Translation In Bodily Writing I have provided a number of examples from premodern China toillustrate the gender differences that frame bodily writing as aperformance of virtue. Does the gendering of bodily writing hold trueacross time and cultures? Does the current fashion of Chinese textualtattoo have any gender implications? Here I attempt to draw a conclusionthrough a glimpse of a contemporary transcultural performance of bodilywriting in Maxine Hang Kingston's The Woman Warrior. It is anegotiation between male bodily marking and female body ownership; it isalso a hybridized performance of Chinese and Asian American A��sian A��mer��i��canalso A��sian-A��mer��i��can ?n.A U.S. citizen or resident of Asian descent. See Usage Note at Amerasian.A ideologies.Ultimately, it is a negotiation between the critique of gender and thecritique of culture. Compared to all the examples from premodern China, The WomanWarrior is a new text in the New World; nevertheless, the image of Chinapresented in the work seems "old." It was first published in1975 as a fiction in the autobiographical style. It is widely read,especially in high schools and colleges, in English and Americanliterature courses or as part of a general multicultural curriculum. In1994, it was adapted into a stage play by director Sharon Ott and writerDeborah Rogin. It remains one of the most popular works of AsianAmerican literature. The tattooing incident in The Woman Warrior is very often the focusof controversy. The chapter "White Tigers" features the Fa MuLan (Hua Mulan, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) character, thelegendary woman warrior who went to war in her father's stead. InKingston's account, Mu Lan's parents ask her to kneel on thefloor at the ancestor's hall. Her mother washes her back and herfather says, "We are going to carve revenge on your back ...We'll write out oaths and names." Her mother says,"Wherever you go, whatever happens to you, people will know oursacrifice ... And you'll never forget either" (Kingston:34).There is a description of her father's carving and mother'swiping and cleaning the wound, and of her own pain throughout. Waitinguntil the wound heals before she sets out for the battlefield, she doesindeed become a heroic character, as the whole village presents hergifts at a farewell party. A man wants to join her and is named"the first soldier" in her army. Soon many more"sons" also volunteer to join her. The performative aspect of this tattooing episode is reminiscent ofYue Fei's. The act (tattooing in the ancestor hall by parents, onthe back) and the circumstances of impending im��pend?intr.v. im��pend��ed, im��pend��ing, im��pends1. To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending.2. war are very similar, butthe message is different: for Yue Fei, to show his determination anddevotion to his country; for Kingston, the parents' claim ofownership of her body. The fusion or confusion of two well-known Chinesecharacters in The Woman Warrior has been severely criticized by manyscholars. Frank Chin Frank Chin (趙健秀; pinyin: Zh��o Ji��nxi��) (born February 25 1940) is an American author and playwright.Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California, but was raised to the age of six by a retired Vaudeville couple in Placerville, California. calls Kingston "fake": not only does shedistort familiar Chinese legends, she also fakes all of Asian Americanhistory This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.This article has been tagged since September 2007. and literature. The fake representation contributes tostereotypes of Asians Stereotypes of Asians may refer to: Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians Stereotypes of South Asians Stereotypes of West and Central Asians (Chin 1991:3). Toming Jun Liu, writing from aChinese diasporic point of view, challenges the validity ofKingston's cultural translation and representation of Chinese women(Liu 1996:4:15-30). So is The Woman Warrior an ethnic text or a genderedtext? Can one be separated from the other? The Chinese society presentedin Kingston's novel is hostile to the individual (the "No NameWoman"), primitive and even cannibalistic can��ni��bal?n.1. A person who eats the flesh of other humans.2. An animal that feeds on others of its own kind.[From Spanish Can��balis, (the mob-like villagers),and extremely sexist. When Kingston grants her woman warrior theopportunity to fight and to be worshipped as a hero, the tattooingincident betrays her intention. The woman warrior does not own her ownbody. Her body is claimed by her parents and by her village. There is nosplit between her body and the text: the writing is on her back, for theviewers only. She does not have the chance to guide the gaze, butsuccumbs to it. She is not the auteur. She is trapped, not just betweenthe American ghosts and Chinese ghosts, but also in the toils ofgendered and cultured misreadings. She becomes the ultimate Orientalizedobject under the American gaze. Kingston defends herself with two main arguments: this is creativewriting, more in the genre of memoir than of history; she is an Americanwriter, not a Chinese writer (Kingston 1982:55-65). Since completecultural translation is impossible, translators of cultures rely on someeasily recognizable signs or concepts, some formula or equations. Inthis case, one commonly recognized phenomenon in The Woman Warrior isthat "the East/China is oppressed womanhood" or "sexismin China is equated with being Chinese culturally" (Liu1996:15-30). Despite Kingston's claim of artistic license, herborrowing of an iconic cultural legend is inevitably seen as a Chinesetextual tattoo on a non-Chinese body: it evokes the desire to translateand interpret, and unfortunately, the translation is often incompleteand divorced from cultural context. Once again, I want to connect the translatability of culture ingendered bodily writing to the differences between performance andperformativity. In premodern Chinese society, the bodily inscription wasoriginally associated with socially or culturally marginalized groups.In some extreme cases, the graphic and performative description ofbodily writing, instead of the body itself, became the perfectperformance of virtue. On stage, however, the performativity of bodilywriting, which prioritizes the text over the body, does not work in thetheatrical performance of female virtue. Chinese women separatethemselves from the text--a split has to open between the body and thebodily writing, as in the recent trend of Chinese textual tattoopractice in the West. In Chinese tattoo, the split is for thetranslation and interpretation of a foreign text, while Chinese womenneed to protect the wholeness of the female body so as to guarantee apowerful yet beautiful and erotic performance of virtue. These virtuouswomen created by Chinese male playwrights use bodily writing to bothreconfirm re��con��firm?tr.v. re��con��firmed, re��con��firm��ing, re��con��firmsTo confirm again, especially to establish or support more firmly: reconfirmed the reservations. the male ideology and to exercise limited female agency onstage. At least for a moment, with bodily writing, either by cuttinghair or writing blood-letters, these women have the sole attention ofthe audience. The entire world stops as we listen to her, watch her andweep with her. Ironically, as one of the pioneer Asian American womenwriters, Kingston, presents the "authentic" China tailored toAmerican popular taste. Through the images of tokenized andstereotypical Chinese culture (female oppression, tattooing cruelty,Confucian family value), Kingston has a chance to reach the broadAmerican audience and gained a space in American multiculturalism.Examining the mixture of Chinese male and female bodily writing on theAmerican stage, one realizes that despite her use of the male-styledbodily writing, the Chinese woman remains oppressed and sexualized forthe American gaze. Oppressed Chinese womanhood seems to become auniversal truth that needs no interpretation. Sexual inequalitytranslates better than culture across space and time. This easytranslatability of Chinese sexuality becomes the most telling(mis)interpretation of cultures. REFERENCES Anonymous. 1985. "Returning Home and Inscribing Text"(Huifu cizi). In Du Yingtao and Yu Yun, eds. Collected Drama and Songson the Yue Fei Story (Yue Fei gushi xiqu shuochong ji), pp. 63-65.Shanghai: Shanghai guji. Anonymous. n. d. "Apppeasing the Barbarians" (Herong ji).The Fuchuntang Edition (printed 1573-1619). n.p. Anonymous. 1986. "The Strong Red-Maned Horse" (Hongzongliema). In Hu Juren, ed. The Grand Complete Drama (Xikao daquan), pp.1:563-95. Taipei: Hongye. Ban Gu. 1983. The History of Han Dynasty (Hen shu). Beijing:Zhonghua. Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversionof Identity. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Routledge. Carlitz, Katherine. 1994. "Desire, Danger, and the Body:Stories of Women's Virtue in Late Ming China." In Christina K.Gilmartin et al., ads. Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State,pp. 101-24. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press The Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. . Ch'en Yuan-p'eng. 2000. "Body and Design:Preliminary Exploration of Tang and Song Period Wen-shen Practices"(Shenti yu huawen: Tang Song shiqi de wenshen fengshang chutan). NewHistory (Xin shixue) 11(1):1-44. Chin, Frank. 1991. "Come All Ye Asian American Writers Amapola Cabase Amazin Lethi (Le Thi) (Vietnamese Born - International Health & Fitness Author) Cathy Bao Bean Cecilia Manguerra Brainard Carlos Bulosan Lan Cao Linda Ty Casper Eileen Chang Emmeline Chang Iris Chang (張純如) of theReal and the Fake." The Big Aiiieeeee! In Jeffery Paul Chan Jeffery Paul Chan (1942 - ) is a Chinese American author. He is a professor of Asian American studies and English at San Francisco State University, where he also received his masters degree and has taught for 38 years until his retirement. , FrankChin et al., ads. An Anthology of Chinese American Chinese Americans (Chinese language: 美籍華人 or 華裔美國人) are Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of Overseas Chinese and are a subgroup of Asian Americans. and Japanese AmericanLiterature. pp. 1-92. New York: Penguin. DeMello, Margo. 2000. Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History ofthe Modern Tattoo Community. Durham & London: Duke University Press. Du Yingtao and Yu Yun, eds. 1985. Collected Drama and Songs on theYue Fei Story (Yue Fei gushi xiqu shuochang ji). Shanghai: Shanghaiguji. Duan Chengshi. 1975. Youyang Miscellany (Youyang zazu). Taipei:Xuesheng. Fan Ye. 1991. The History of Later Han Dynasty The Later Han Dynasty could refer to two dynasties in China: The Eastern Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 9) Later Han Dynasty (Five Dynasties), a dynasty in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (936–947) (Houhan shu).Beijing: Zhonghua. Faris, James. 1988. "Significance of Differences in the Maleand Female Personal Art of the Southeast Nuba." In Arnold Rubin,ed. Marks of Civilization: Artistic Transformations of the Human Body.pp. 29-40. Los Angeles Los Angeles(lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. : Museum of Cultural History, University ofCalifornia The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). . Foucault, Michel Foucault, Michel,1926–84, French philosopher and historian. He was professor at the Collège de France (1970–84). He is renowned for historical studies that reveal the sometimes morally disturbing power relations inherent in social practices. . 1984. "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History."In Paul Rabinow Paul Rabinow is a Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley. [1] He has taught at Berkeley since 1978. [2] BiographyPaul Rabinow received his B.A.(1965), M.A.(1967), and Ph.D. , ed. The Foucault Reader. pp. 76-100. New York: PantheonBooks. Gao Ming. 1994. Pipa ji ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], TheLute). Taipei: Huazheng. --. 1980. The Lute (Pipa ji), translated by Jean Mulligan. NewYork: Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is an academic press based in New York City and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan (2004-present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, . Guo Qingfan, ed. 1980. Collected Annotations on the Zhuangzi(Zhuangzi jishi). Taipei: Heluo. Hanzi Smatter Hanzi Smatter is a blog that is dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture, or Eihongo.It was started as a hobby of author Tian Tang in 2004. Most of the site's entries are photos of poorly done tattoos accompanied with often humorous and sarcastic : "[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: dedicated tothe misuse of Chinese characters in western culture." n.d. Acessfrom www.hanzismatter.com on November 10, 2008. Kingston, Maxine Hang. 1982. "Cultural Mis-readings byAmerican Reviewers." In Guy Amirthanayagam, ed. Asian and WesternWriters in Dialogue: New Cultural Identities, pp. 55-65. New York:Macmillan Press, Ltd. --. 1989. The Woman Warrior. New York: Vintage International. Ko, Dorothy. 1994. Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women andCulture in Seventeenth-century China. Stanford: Stanford University Stanford University,at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president. Press. Lei, Daphne Pi-Wei. 1999. "Performing the Borders: Gender andIntercultural Conflicts in Premodern Chinese Drama Chinese drama can refer to: Chinese opera Chinese television series ." Ph.D.dissertation. Department of Drama & Dance, Tufts University Tufts University,main campus at Medford, Mass.; coeducational; chartered 1852 by Universalists as a college for men. It became a university in 1955. Jackson College, formerly a coordinate undergraduate college for women, merged with the College of Liberal Arts in . Lei, Daphne P. 2006. Operatic China: Staging Chinese Identityacross the Pacific. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Liu, Taming Jun. 1996. "The Problematics of Kingston's'Cultural Translation': A Chinese Diasporic View of The WomanWarrior." Journal of American Studies of Turkey 4:15-30. Liu Xiang This is a Chinese name; the family name is 劉 (Liu). Liu Xiang (Simplified Chinese: 刘翔; Traditional Chinese: 劉翔. 1966. "Biographies of Female Exemplars: the ClassicVersion" (Gu Lienu zhuon). In Congshu jicheng jianbian, vol.814-815. Taipei: Shangwu. Luo Guanzhong Luo Guanzhong (Traditional Chinese: 羅貫中; Simplified Chinese: 罗贯中; Hanyu Pinyin: Lu�� Gu��nzhōng; Wade-Giles: Lo Kuan-chung, fl. . 1992. The Story of Three Kingdoms (Songuo yonyi).Taipei: Guiguan. Ma Zhiyuan Ma Zhiyuan (Traditional Chinese: 馬致遠; Simplified Chinese: 马致远; Pinyin: Mă Zh��yuăn, ca. . 1989. "Autumn in the Hon Palace" (Hongongqiu). In Zang Jinshu, ed. Selected Yuon Plays (Yuonqu xuon), 1:1-13.Beijing: Zhonghua. Mao Kun, ed. 1981. The Expanded, Fully Illustrated, AnnotatedBiographies of Female Exemplars from History (Zengbu quanxiang ping/ingujin lienu zhuan). Taipei: Guangwen. Ouyang Xiu Ouyang Xiuor Ou-yang Hsiu(born 1007, Mianyang, Sichuan province, China—died 1072, Yingzhou, Anhui province) Chinese poet, historian, and statesman. He served in various official positions but was repeatedly demoted or banished for his outspokenness. et al., eds. 1975-81. The New Tong History (Xin Tangshu). Taipei: Dingwen. Qu Shouyuan, ed. 1996. Outer Traditions of the Han School ofPoetry, with Commentary and Subcommentary (Hanshi waizhuan jianshu).Chengdu: Bashu. Reed, Carrie E. 2000. "Tattoo in Early China." Journal ofthe American Oriental Society 120(4):360-76. Scarry, Elaine. 1985. The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking ofthe World. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong. 1974. The Water Margin (Shuihuzhuan). Taipei: Sanmin. --. 1968. Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), translated by J. H.,Jackson. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp. T'ien Ju-K'ang. 1988. Male Anxiety and Female Chastity: AComparative Study of Chinese Ethical Values in Ming-Ching Times. NewYork: Brill. Tuotuo et al., eds. 1975-81. The Newly Revised History of the SongDynasty (Xinjiaoben Song shi). Taipei: Dingwen. Wang Geng, ed. 1971. Illustrated Biographies of Women Exemplars(Huitu lienu zhuan). Taipei: Zhengzhong. Xing Bing, ed. 1979. Classic of Filial Piety, with Commentary andSubcommentary (Xiao jing zhushu). Beijing: Zhonghua. Zhao Erxun et al., eds. 1975-81. The Newly Revised Draft History ofOing Dynasty (Xinjiaoben Qing shi gao). Taipei: Dingwen. Zhu Liangqing. 1985. "Duo Qiukui chuanqi." In Du Yingtaoand Yu Yun, eds. Collected Drama and Songs on the Yue Fei Story (Yue Feigushi xiqu shuochang ji), pp. 7-56. Shanghai: Shanghai guji Daphne P. Lei University of California, Irvine ENDNOTES (1) I use the word "text" in the sense of writtenrepresentations of words, in this case graphs representing Chinesewords. In the tattoo subculture in the U.S., people often use the term"Chinese" and "kanji (human language, character) kanji - /kahn'jee/ (From the Japanese "kan" - the Chinese Han dynasty, and "ji" - glyph or letter of the alphabet. Not capitalised. Plural "kanji") The Japanese word for a Han character used in Japanese. " (Chinese characters used inJapanese) interchangeably. (2) I have presented a paper ("Asia Skin Deep: InterculturalPerformance in Tattoos") at the PSi (Performance Studiesinternational) conference in Singapore, 2004, on the issue of(mis)interpretation and (mis)translation of Chinese textual tattoos. Thediscourse on erroneous Chinese textual tattoos (both mistranslated andwrongly written) makes a distinctive genre in the performative tattoodiscourse. For instance, a website "Hanzi Smatter," which is"dedicated to misuse of Chinese characters in westernculture," also shows some wrong usage of Chinese characters intattoos (www.hanzismatter.com). (3) Tattoo in the West was brought from Polynesia in the eighteenthcentury. Similar to the situation in premodern Chinese society (detailsbelow), tattoo was associated with primitivism or marginalizedpopulation. A new cultural phenomenon, "Tattoo Renaissance"emerged in the 1980s in the US, as the middle-class repackaged andincorporated tattoo as part of their life experience. See Margo DeMello,Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community(Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2000), 1-16. Chinesetextual tattoo, as I suspect, is part of the Asian-fusion fad within themiddle-class tattoo community. Plenty of celebrities have Chinesetextual tattoos, such as the soccer star David Beckham Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. (on the torso)and basketball star Camby (on the arm). (4) For more details about this kind of split in Chinese acting,see Daphne P. Lei, Operatic China: Staging Chinese Identity across thePacific (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 14-18. I also emphasizethe fact that the split is an incomplete one, because the self/body isactually one thing. (5) The Imperial Examination was a test in the Chinese literarycanon and in certain prescribed writing styles. Those who passed thetests, depending on the level of the test, were eligible for appointmentto civil service positions. Only male students were allowed to take thetests. Since fame and fortune were the rewards of success, it is easy toassociate literacy with male elite power in premodern China. Thetradition of the Imperial Examination last more than a millennium, fromthe Sui Dynasty Sui dynasty(581–618) Short-lived Chinese dynasty that unified northern and southern China after centuries of division. Under the Sui, the cultural and artistic renaissance that was to reach its height under the succeeding Tang dynasty was set in motion. (581-618) to 1905, with occasional interruptions, thelongest of which occurred during the Yuan dynasty, when Mongols ruledover China. (6) For instance, a woman will not and cannot show her bare skin toreveal the bodily writing. (7) Two recent articles on tattoos in premodern China deservemention here: Ch'en Yuanp'eng, "Body and Design:Preliminary Exploration of Tang and Song Period Wen-shen Practices"(Shenti yu huawen: Tang Song shiqi de wenshen fengshang chutan), in NewHistory (Xin shixue) 11 (1): 1-44; and Carrie E. Reed, "Tattoo inEarly China," Journal of the American Oriental Society 120 (4):360-76. Both articles provide multiple examples of bodily markings inpremodern China. (8) It is important to note that "Central State"(zhongguo, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) is a Han Chinese term fortheir own country, and this positionality reflects their view of theworld: Han Chinese occupy the center, with other ethnic groups on themargins. Under this light, ethnic minorities are often referred to as"barbarians" instead of by their proper names. This assumptionis naturally not suitable for the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic modernChinese society, though it is true that the term "Zhongguo" isstill used to name China and all the diverse ethnic groups within itspolitical borders. In this article, when discussing premodern Chinesematters, I use such negative words as "barbarian,""primitive," "uncivilized" to reflect specificHan-centric attitudes about cultural centrality. (9) Over the course of history, Yue has been used to refer togroups anywhere from Zhejiang provice to northern Vietnam, and hasgenerally carried with it a connotation of barbarism. See Reed, 361. (10) This is certainly true when one considers organ donation Organ donation is the removal of the tissues of the human body from a person who has recently died, or from a living donor, for the purpose of transplanting or grafting them into other persons. inmodern Chinese society. For instance, some believe that a man who hasdonated his corneas will not be able to see in his next life. Althoughone might argue that charity (saving lives by donating organs) alsobrings merit in this kind of popular Buddhist thinking, the fear of anincomplete reincarnation nevertheless plays an important part inrejecting organ donation. (11) One of the English translations of Shuihu zhuan (by ShiNai'an and Luo Guanzhong) is J.H. Jackson's Water Margin (NewYork: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1968). (12) One might want to argue from the examples listed above thattext is treated as "pictures" only for its visual element, asChinese calligraphy calligraphy(kəlĭg`rəfē)[Gr.,=beautiful writing], skilled penmanship practiced as a fine art. See also inscription; paleography.European CalligraphyIn Europe two sorts of handwriting came into being very early. , is sometimes seen as pictorial art rather thantext. The picture quality of the text almost gives a good excuse foroverlooking the erroneous contemporary Chinese tattoos. However, textualsignificance never fades in the Chinese cultural context, since even inappreciating calligraphy, one always tries to identity the charactersbesides identifying the style. (13) This anonymous play in the collection is based on a versionfrom the period of Tongzhi and Guangxu (1862-1908). (14) One early example is when the state of Zhao adopted styles ofhorse-riding, archery and even clothing from the northern minority groupas military strategy in 326 B.C.E. (15) Guan's face is described as having the color of reddates. His red face evolves into a type in the painted face (jing, [TEXTNOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) category in Chinese opera Chinese Opera (Chinese: 戏曲/戲曲; Pinyin: x��qǔ) is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China. There are numerous regional branches of opera with its original root starting in the dynastic periods HistoryDynastic periods . The red face isthe embodiment of loyalty and bravery on the Chinese stage. (16) This is not to undermine excellent studies on women'swriting in premodern China, such as Dorothy Ko's works onseventeenth-century women's writing and publication. See Teachersof the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-century China(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994). My point here is thatwomen's writing, despite its literary excellence or commercialviability, is not considered as "important" in the public mindbecause it does not affect their civil status. Its symbolic capital isless because it does not translate into actual capital as the ImperialExamination is designed for "men only." (17) For instance, Huyan Zan, a general of the Song dynasty, showedhis determination to defeat bandits by carving "With pure heartkill bandits" (chi xin sha zei, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII])on his body. He also carved such characters on the bodies of his wifeand servants. In this case, his wife, like his servants, is treated ashis property for demonstrating his loyalty. The "branding" isboth to show his determination and to show ownership. This incident isfrom Sun Fengji's Zhiguan fenji, quoted in Ch'en, 22. (18) The original Biographies of Female Exemplars (LienLi zhuan)was compiled by Liu Xiang (77-6 B.C.E.). Many expanded, commentated andillustrated versions appeared throughout history. The example here isfrom The Expanded, Fully lllustrated, Annotated Biographies of FemaleExemplars from History (Zengbu quanxiang pinglin gujin lienu zhuan),edited by Mao Kun (1512-60) (Taipei: Guangwen, 1981), 6: 36-8. (19) This particular notion of the strict separation of men andwomen traces back to a pre-Han philosophical work, the Mencius (Mengzi). (20) These are the words of Wang Tingna, quoted in KatherineCarlitz's "Desire, Danger, and the Body: Stories ofWomen's Virtue in Late Ming China," in Christina K. Gilmartinet al., eds. Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 115. (21) One famous example of a surviving woman is Cai Yan ([TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], fl. 194-206?), who was abducted by the Xiongnutribe and stayed among them for twelve years. Despite her literary andmusical talents, she is condemned for her survival by many writers inlater works: she should have chosen suicide. (22) I have in mind particularly the extensive study of femalesuicide in the Ming and Qing dynasties by T'ien Ju-K'ang. SeeMale Anxiety and Female Chastity: A Comparative Study of Chinese EthicalValues in Ming-Ching Times (New York: Brill, 1988). (23) Both The History of the Song Dynasty and Women Exemplarscontain this story, but with minor variations. See Tuotuo et al., 13458,and Illustrated Biographies of Women Exemplars (Huitu lienu zhuan)(Taipei: Zhengzhong), 2: 1030-32. The Illustrated Biographies is editedby Wang Geng and illustrated by Qiu Ying Qiu Ying (仇英; pinyin: Qi�� Yīng, Wade-Giles Ch'iu Ying) (1494 - 1552) was a Chinese painter who specialized in the gongbi brush technique.He was born to a peasant family, and studied painting at the Wu School in Suzhou. . (24) The English text is from Jean Mulligan's translation (TheLute. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980). This is from scenetwenty-four. (25) The story of Xue and Wang appears in many local plays undervarious titles. Here I am using an example from the anonymous Beijingopera Beijing opera or Peking opera (Simplified Chinese: 京剧; Traditional Chinese: 京劇; Pinyin: Jīngj��The Strong Red-Maned Horse (Hongzong liema, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLEIN ASCII]). The scenes that concern the letter-writing are "Rushingthrough Three Passes" ("Gan sanguan," [TEXT NOTREPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and "Wujia Hill" ("Wujiapo," [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). According to Beijing operatradition, only selected scenes are performed, rarely entire plays;"Wujia Hilt is the most representative scene of the entire story.See Hu Juren, ed. The Grand Complete Drama (Xikao daquan). (Taipei:Hongye, 1986), 1: 563-95. (26) A few accounts of Wang Zhaojun can be found in The History ofHan Dynasty (Han shu) and The History of Later Han Dynasty (Houhan shu).Although her story varies in different accounts, in general, accordingto historical records, she was a court lady sent to be married to theXiongnu chieftain to establish a peace alliance between Han China andthe Xiongnu. The whole romantic relationship between her and the Chineseemperor and her pathetic suicide on the border seem to have been aninvention for stage and for fiction. For an extensive study of the WangZhaojun character in drama, see Daphne Pi-Wei Lei, Performing theBorders: Gender and Intercultural Conflicts in Premodern Chinese Drama.Ph.D dissertation. Department of Drama & Dance, Tufts University,1999. (27) The first known play in which she commits suicide is thefamous Autumn in the Han Palace (Hangong qiu, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII]) by Ma Zhiyuan ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) of the Yuandynasty. After Autumn, Wang's story is retold re��told?v.Past tense and past participle of retell. in different dramaticforms and in fiction, at greater or lesser length, but the suicide seemsto become a permanent feature. (28) The version used here is a facsimile of the Fuchuntang ([TEXTNOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) edition (author anonymous), printed duringthe years of Wanli (1573-1619). It is in two volumes and thirty-fivescenes. (29) A good comparison here is the suicide scene in Autumn in theHan Palace (Hangong qiu) by Ma Zhiyuan of the Yuan dynasty. Yuan zajuusually has only one singing character. In this case, since Emperor Yuanis the only singing character, he dominates the play. Wang, without asinging voice, seems a weak character. The border-crossing scene is veryshort, without letter-writing, and her suicide seems abrupt andanticlimactic. (30) Here I am drawing upon film studies' auteur theory auteur theoryTheory that holds that a film's director is its “author” (French, auteur). It originated in France in the 1950s and was promoted by Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard and the journal Cahiers du Cinéma. .Originating in France in the 1950s as the "politique desauteurs" (as formulated by Truffaut and others), auteur theoryassumes that a movie, though a collaboration, is given its essentialidentity by one person: the director. The body of films of a givendirector--the work of a director like Fellini, for example, or JohnFord, or Woody Allen Noun 1. Woody Allen - United States filmmaker and comic actor (1935-)Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Allen , will, according to the auteur theory, exhibit thedistinctive signature of their auteur and may be profitably studied assuch. All the women characters discussed above can be seen as auteurs inthe genre of theatrical performance of female virtue. The signature workgenerally follows this line: extreme female suffering, detached bodilywriting, and the completion of the performance of auteurship (interplaywith the body, directing the gaze and so on).